


A Knight on the Rim

by deadendtracks (amonitrate)



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Pre-Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:01:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amonitrate/pseuds/deadendtracks
Summary: She’d thought maybe after he joined Parliament she’d see him more than she had when he’d lived full time in Birmingham, but now he had an office and flat in London, she hadn’t seen him at all except on company business or to pass information for Ben Younger.A game of chess, an unanswered question, a proposition.
Relationships: Ada Shelby & Tommy Shelby
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61
Collections: Peaky Blinders Exchange Round Two: Season 5 Edition





	A Knight on the Rim

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emjen_Enla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emjen_Enla/gifts).

> written as a treat!
> 
> I do not consent to have my work hosted on or accessed by any third party app or site. If you are seeing this fanfiction anywhere but archiveofourown it has been reposted or accessed without my permission. Please be aware that I am strongly against this type of app and ask that you access my fic via AO3 in the future.

“Karl, love, come get some lunch,” Ada called. “The nice thing about chess is it’s not going anywhere while you eat, is it.”

Since joining some club at school, Karl’d been obsessed with the game, quickly surpassing her ability -- or interest -- and moving on to setting up scenarios he’d found in books and playing himself. 

“Karl, now.” He was still bent over the bloody board. “I don’t see how it does any good to play yourself when you already know what move you’re going to make next.”

He just rolled his eyes at her, Karl, and trotted off to the kitchen. Before she could follow there was a rap at the door. Her brother stood on the stoop, hat pulled low like always, and despite the daylight and his straight posture and the fact it’d been five years a familiar thrill of fear ran through her when he appeared unannounced like this. Like she had every time since, she ran her eyes over him, checking for blood. There wasn’t any, not that she could see.

“Tommy,” she greeted. “You’re just in time for lunch.” He stared at her as if she’d spoken in French, as if he could pick out a few of the words she’d said but not put it together into a whole. It had been like that at first in the hospital; it had taken her too long to catch on to the fact that he couldn’t understand what she’d said to him. The fear came back, redoubled. “Tom. What is it? What’s wrong--”

He shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. I was just in the neighborhood.”

And that was clearly a lie, but Ada let it go. Stepped back and let him past, then followed him into the sitting room. “Thought you’d be home for the weekend.”

“Had a meeting.” He didn’t elaborate. Just stood there among the cozy chairs and scanned the room as if he’d never seen it before.

“Did you want something to eat? Karl was--”

He waved her off. “Can’t stay long.” Okay. When he didn’t say anything else, she took a seat on the couch, hoping he’d take a hint. Instead he wandered over to the wall hung with framed prints. “This a new one?” 

She couldn’t tell which he meant. Not that it mattered; none of them were new. She’d thought maybe after he joined Parliament she’d see him more than she had when he’d lived full time in Birmingham, but now he had an office and flat in London, she hadn’t seen him at all except on company business or to pass information for Ben Younger.

Karl must have bolted down his food in record time because he was back before Ada had found a way to get Tommy to talk. And somehow, before Tommy himself seemed to know what was happening, Karl had roped him into a game. Though he didn’t say anything it was immediately clear Tommy hadn’t the first clue how to play chess, so with the enthusiasm of an obsessive with a fresh victim, her son set off trying to teach him. Karl insisted on playing as white; Tommy, an ironic lift to the corner of his mouth, only assured him that he preferred black. 

Ada settled on the couch next to Tommy with her cup of tea and watched, bemused, as her son lectured her brother and Tommy just took it. The novelty of the whole thing ended up a distraction from what was going on, so it took her a good hour to catch the fact that Tommy, who usually picked up things like this easy as breathing, kept forgetting the rules, moving his pieces as if they were playing checkers. At first she thought he was doing it on purpose for Karl’s sake, but then she saw the line between his eyes, the way his frown deepened when Karl chided him as only a nine year old could and moved his knight back and reminded him, again, how the game was to be played. He accepted Karl’s tutelage easy enough the first few times, but when Karl cackled at another blunder Tommy stood up from the board and paced away, pulling his cigarette case out of his jacket pocket.

At some point during the game he’d finally taken off his cap, and when he had it’d revealed what must have been a freshly barbered cut, sides and back shaved down to the skin. It made him look… she wasn’t sure what to make of it. It suited him, she supposed, but it was so severe, leaving him all harsh angles. 

“Tom,” she said. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head and blew smoke at the ceiling. “You ever see Freddie, Ada?”

The question robbed her of breath. It had been years, but it still ached, Freddie’s absence. On the floor by the chess board, Karl’s head came up, curious. He was always hungry for stories of his father, but Tommy’s voice had been all wrong, not in the mood for reminiscing. And besides, what he’d asked--

“What d'you mean, see him?”

Tommy stubbed his cigarette out in the little crystal ashtray on the side table and frowned, as if he wasn’t sure what she was asking. Then his attention fell on Karl and his face bled of all expression.

“Nothing. I’ve got to get back to the office.” But he didn’t make a move to leave.

Hmm. “That’s enough chess for now, Karl. Give your poor uncle a break, yeah?” Karl was gearing up to give her some lip, but all she had to do was frown in a certain way and he sighed and let it go. “Why don’t you see if Jack or Max would want to go to the park? You’ve been cooped up in here all day.”

He didn’t look enthusiastic about the prospect, but he knew enough not to argue. Once he’d vanished out the front door Ada turned back to her brother. He’d sat back down and was staring at the chess board as if studying it.

“It’s the newest rage with the nine year old set, apparently.”

Tommy blinked and glanced up, hair falling in his eyes. “Hmm?”

“Chess. Nevermind.” The lines had deepened around his mouth since she’d seen him last. “How long’s it been since you were home?”

He lifted one shoulder. “The stablehands wanted me to take a look at one of the horses,” he said, as if that was any kind of answer at all. “Came down with choke.”

Alright. She could talk horses, if that was where he was at, she supposed. “Which one?” But he was rubbing at his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, and didn’t answer. “You having headaches again?” 

“Hmm?” He dropped his hand. 

“Headaches, Tommy. You--”

“Nothing serious,” he said. “Too much reading, and I need new glasses.” 

She couldn’t tell if it was a lie. “What did you mean earlier, about me seeing Freddie?”

He took a breath, let it out, and lit another cigarette. “The bloody grooms let him eat too fast. It’s been going on fuck knows how long, because when the vet flushed him to break it apart it took a fucking hour and near a pound of feed came out.”

Jesus fucking Christ. “You mean the horse?” 

He just stared at her as if he hadn’t heard her ask about Freddie at all. “Yeah. Dangerous.”

Right. “Did you come here to tell me about your fucking horse, then?"

Tommy stood up again, shoved his hands into his trouser pockets. “I’ve a proposition for you.”

Jumping from subject to subject like this wasn’t like him, but she went with it best she could. “What kind of proposition?” 

Tommy’s propositions tended to be the kind of thing that eventually got someone killed, or at the least involved crossing the fucking ocean on business. Something of the thought must have reached her face, because he gave her a grim sort of smile.

“Nothing like you’re thinking. You’ve contacts with the Communists and the Socialists, yeah? You keep up with things, with the news, you understand the political currents better than I do. Especially in London.”

He wasn’t saying these things as if they were meant to flatter her, but as if they were the sum he’d come to at the end of a long column of numbers. “I suppose.”

He nodded. “I want you to advise me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, advise you?”

The smile had gone a little wry. “It means what I said. I’m… new to all of this, Ada. I know about industry, what the bosses want. But I represent Labour now, and you’ve a better sense of the worker. Of politics. What the people want.”

The people. “Jesus Christ, Tommy.”

“You were a great asset during the campaign. I thought--”

“Alright.” He couldn’t be serious. “Yeah. I’ll think about it, okay?”

He’d already grabbed his cap off the arm of the couch and was turning to leave.

“Stay for dinner, yeah? Karl would love to give you another lesson. I know too much now to interest him, but not enough to be any challenge, so he’s bored of me.”

He didn’t look particularly tempted by that idea, not that she could blame him, but he did give her a rueful sort of shrug. “I’ve a meeting tonight with the MP from West Fife.”

As she followed him towards the hall to see him out, what he’d asked about Freddie wouldn’t leave her. He’d asked for a reason; Tommy didn’t just say things like that idly, did he. She stopped him with a hand on his arm just as he was replacing his cap. “Tommy, you know if you… if you need anything, you can call, or come over. Anytime. Yeah?”

“Alright,” he said mildly, as if she needed bloody reassurance. And then he was out the door, climbing into his car, and was gone.


End file.
